The geochemistry of lead in rivers,estuaries and the continental shelf of the Southeastern United States

Transport by southeastern rivers has insignificant influence on the lead concentration of southeastern shelf waters. If the rate of mobilization and transport of lead by these rivers is representative of uncontaminated fluvial transport during the Pleistocene, only about 5% of the prehistoric output of lead to the North Atlantic can be accounted for by river input.Lead concentrations in southeastern shelf waters are similar to those of North Atlantic Water from the upper 1000 m, which is probably similar to the intrusion source water for the shelf. Atmospheric inputs to the shelf of the same magnitude as observed for the Western North Atlantic are difficult to reconcile given the residence time of shelf waters and their lead concentration unless the rate of loss of lead to shelf sediments is about the same as the atmospheric flux.     

Fine structure beneath the Tohoku district, northeastern Japan arc, as derived by an inversion of P-wave arrival times from local earthquakes

Three dimensional P-wave velocity structure beneath the Tohoku district, northeastern Japan arc, is investigated by an inversion of arrival times from local earthquakes using the method originally due to Aki and Lee (1976).In the crust (0–32 km depth) a low-velocity region is found along the volcanic front and its vicinity. Velocities at depths of 32–65 km are low beneath the regions where many Quaternary volcanoes and geothermal areas are distributed. In the region deeper than 65 km, the subduction of the Pacific plate is clearly revealed, and the mantle structure above the descending plate is rather uniform. These features suggest that volcanic activities have relation to the upper mantle structure. The results obtained in this study will be helpful in investigating the mechanism of magma generation in a subduction zone.     

Interferometer observation of pulsating sources associated with a type IV solar radio burst

An extremely complex outburst, part of which showed unsually rapid intensity fluctuations of a few second interval, was observed on 1970 November 5 with the 160 MHz interferometer of the Nobeyama Solar Radio Station. The pulsating source, which was stable in position and strongly circularly polarized ( 60 %), had an extension as large as 17 (7.5 × 10⁵ km) in the east-west direction. The structure of the source remained unchanged while the source darkened and brightened repeatedly. The change of the source brightness occurred in a time shorter than a second.Two alternative mechanisms responsible for the pulsating phenomenon are suggested; (1) gyroresonance absorption of continuum radiation by a fast particle beam injected in a quasi-periodic manner into a large region of weak magnetic field, or (2) magnetohydrodynamic oscillation of the continuum source itself, which is intrinsically much smaller than observed. It is observed as a large source as a consequence of scattering of the emitted radiation in a region situated above the source.     

Photochemistry of N2O4 Adsorbed on Ice Surfaces at 193 nm

A multi-layer deposited ice film was prepared through water vapor deposition on a Ni plate in a vacuum chamber at 90 K, and was used as it was or after annealing at 140 K. NO₂ was adsorbed as N₂O₄ approximately 90 K on the ice film prepared as above, and irradiated by 193 nm excimer laser light. The time-of-flight (TOF) spectra of the desorbed species, i.e., NO₂, NO, O₂ and O, were measured by a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The photochemical process obeyed an one-photon process. The relative yields of the products and their TOF spectra were dependent on the preparation condition of the ice film and also varied with the continuation of the laser irradiation. From the ice film annealed at 140 K, NO₂, NO and O₂ were desorbed with an approximate ratio of 1:1:0.01. From the non-annealed film, the relative yield of NO₂ was much smaller than that of NO. The TOF spectrum of NO from the non-annealed ice film consisted of distinctly different two components corresponding to the 1700 and 100 K translational temperature, respectively. The fast component was lost when additional ice was deposited on the adsorbed N₂O₄. NO was supposed to be a predissociation product from the electronically excited NO₂ prepared through the photodissociation of N₂O₄.